Shelby County District Attorney Robby Owens stated in an email this afternoon that prosecutors will ask for a hearing regarding the issues in the Sims case. "I expect that after that hearing the defendant will remain confined," he stated.

Sims' attorneys John Lentine and Wendell Sheffield stated in a court document Wednesday that the mental evaluation report of Sims by the prosecution's expert "specifically and unequivocally" confirms their position regarding Sims' mental condition at the time of the incident.

The expert's report, according to Lentine and Sheffield, confirms that Sims "was suffering from a severe mental disease or defect, specifically previously undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia with active psychosis, and as a result of his mental illness he was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of his actions or the wrongfulness of his acts."

Sims' lawyers argue in the court document that Sims can't be prosecuted for any criminal offenses that resulted from his severe mental illness and he should be immediately released from jail. Sims does not currently pose threat to himself or others and has been and currently is voluntarily being treated for his mental illness, his attorneys stated in the court document.

The document Lentine and Sheffield filed Wednesday afternoon was a response to a request filed earlier in the day by Assistant Shelby County District Attorney Roger Hepburn seeking a delay in the May 27 hearing. Hepburn seeks a one week delay due to a scheduling conflict.

Lentine and Sheffield state in the court document that prosecutors have failed to show why a continuance of the hearing is justified. The request by Hepburn to continue the hearing only came a day after the expert's report was received, the defense attorneys argue.

"The ends of justice are not promoted by delay; the ends of justice are not promoted by the continued punishment of someone who is legally exempt from punishment; the ends of justice are not promoted by allowing a climate of fear to be perpetuated when in fact no real or present danger to the public exists," Lentine and Sheffield state in their response.

Sims was indicted on five counts of first-degree kidnapping and one charge of making a terrorist threat in connection with the Feb. 12, 2013 incident at the middle school.

Sims went into a locker room carrying a gun and briefly held students hostage before a sheriff's deputy guarding the front of the school convinced Sims to surrender. Sims, a former student and part-time summer employee of the school, lived near the school.

Updated at 5:20 p.m. May 22, 2014 with comment from Shelby County District Attorney